Not writing frequently any more - work demands curtail my time!
Not writing frequently any more - work demands curtail my time!
Member since:26.07.2000
Reviews:575
Members who trust:274
The comet cursor may look like a funky little dooberry so enhance your website and give it a bit of originality, but in actual fact the cursèd cursor (fine archaic orthography!) contains a nasty payload. Whilst you obliviously let the comet cursor guide people across your websites, you are actually giving a spywareapplication free rein to reveal your surfing habits to third parties, and pry on your internet habits.
Aside from being an example of spyware, what does the comet cursor do?
Well simply put, it should help improve the browsing experience of the site (its claim - Yeah right!) with "Smart Cursors" which give you definitions and references or search results, on the end of your mouse pointer. The Smart Cursor works as follows: if you click on a word on the Net, you can then search the Online version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica or get results from your search engine, whilst at the same time not having to leave the site you are actually visiting.
As far as the Fun Cursors go, these are aimed unsurprisingly at making your web experience slightly more fun, replacing the boring mouse pointer that you know and love, which is merely practical and unintrusive with a funky cursor, from many tpoics, such as South Park, The Simpsons, Dilbert and others. There is a library of 2500 or so to choose from, but at the end of the day what is the actual point of these things? The spyware element is another instance of Virgil's timeo Danaos et donae ferentes (a golden line from the Aeneid - book 2) bearing fruits. This cutesie application hides a nasty spyware payload.
Should you feel so possessed to actually download this thing, then you will require Internet Explorer to run it. Other browsers, i.e. Opera, Netscape or ISP proprietary browsers (e.g. AOL 6.0) will not run this program. But then again spyware is akin to inviting a burglar in to your own home, and well you wouldn't do that, would you? Whilst it functions well, being easy to install and use, if your browser supports it, the fact that this is a gratuitous example of spyware gets Comet Cursor a big thumbs down from me.
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Nice one Mike - I despise this thing - it just irritates me!
Kunama 19.04.2001 15:00
Yup, totally aree with you on this one. I downloaded this wee thing a few months back. Dicsovered what it was and promptly deleted it. Or so I thought, it kept on reapearing on my toolbar, no matter how many different ways I tried to delete it! So be warned, you might think it has gone but it could still be lurking!
Scotslady 17.04.2001 11:27
I downloaded this accidentally at the weekend :S I had no idea what it was or how I came to download it. It will be deleted now - I hate spyware. Thanks for the warning.
Apr 12th, 2001
very helpful by (96%):
somewhat helpful by (4%):
